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Tag Archives: Encounters

The new season of the Legacy of the Crystal Shard is ready to launch. If you’re coordinating for your local game store, you’ve probably already received your packet of materials for the season. This season, much like the last, provided a custom d20 and a full color player handout map.

During the Murder in Baldur’s Gate season, I noticed less than a fourth of the players were interested in their maps. On the first day maps were handed out to players I found many players left their maps behind on the table. I collected them back up so they wouldn’t be wasted, but I resolved to do something about it the following season.

While examining the old maps, I realized the back sides were completely blank and I knew I could make use of that! In the early seasons of Encounters, tracking sheets were made for players to keep track of objectives, experience points, treasure, and game notes. I could print player trackers on the backs of the maps and players would have more incentive to keep them.

The old trackers were not very conservative with space, and they tracked all kinds of things that wouldn’t necessarily apply now. Plus, our store runs a mix of Next and D&D 4e tables, so I needed a single tracker useful for any table. With that in mind, I created a new, simplified tracker. Then I did a test print on the back of a Baldur’s Gate map.

It worked!
Well, sort of… The coated paper printed very well, but the heat of the laser printer made the paper curl intensely. I had to immediately flatten the paper. If you decide to print on the back of your maps, make sure to watch and flatten any curling before the paper cools if you’re using a laser printer. I suspect inkjets won’t have the curling issue, but the glossy coat may cause inkjet printing to smear the lovely maps as they slide out and stack up. Between the two, I’d rather deal with curling.

I’ve shared the tracker I created at the link below. If you’re a player or a store Encounters Coordinator, you can print it on the back of your maps, or on regular paper.